Online Workshop: Sensual Dancing

[Tessalicious]

Originally Posted by ducasi

The thing is that while a lady is doing a hijack, she is leading herself. At some point she should hand back the lead to the guy.

Sometimes this can be just by stopping leading herself, but in more complex hijacks, it would be a more deliberate action. IIRC, the way that I've seen this taught is that if the hijack is done in an open position (e.g. if the girl wants to do a pose or wiggle or something) then afterwards she should draw in a little to the guy, drop the tension in her arm a bit and let the guy pick it up again. (When hijacking the girl should and (I guess?) will need to put more tension through her arm to stop the guy from leading, and signal that she's taking over.)

I know this is ages ago, and the thread has moved on, but I felt the need to pick up on this.

Technically, when a woman wants to 'hijack', she has to break the connection between the guy's hand, her hand and her body*. Although that can be done by letting go of his hand, a better way involves reducing the frame in her arm, and therefore the tension that she is giving the guy, rather than increasing it. That has the result that a small lead from the guy can have little or no effect on the movement of her body. And that in turn is why a guy has to be the type to let a girl 'play' - otherwise, he won't be aware of that change in connection and will still be leading big moves, which even with dropped frame she has no choice but to follow, unless she wants to let go completely.

Similarly, when she is finished hijacking, or playing, or whatever, this is indicated by her re-engaging her frame and connection. Preferably in the right place in the beat, so the guy has just enough warning before the next beat to be ready to lead, but not so that he panics and starts moving too early. Tricky stuff - one day I'll get the hang of it.

*unless, of course, she is hijacking in such a way as to try to make the guy do something he wasn't going to do, in which case she needs to keep the connection, but take over the lead role in that connection. That would be backleading - I would never condone such behaviour .

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Tessalicious

Technically, when a woman wants to 'hijack', she has to break the connection between the guy's hand, her hand and her body*. Although that can be done by letting go of his hand, a better way involves reducing the frame in her arm, and therefore the tension that she is giving the guy, rather than increasing it.

Hmm... One of the simplest hijacks there is is to slow down a travelling return over a few beats, and/or come out of the turn at a different place.

During the normal travelling return I'm leading a stepping movement with my hand above the girl's head...

If she tries to hijack to slow down the movement, but reduces the frame in her arm, I am likely to pull her over. But by increasing the tension, and effectively taking over the lead, I know that I have to give up control and let the girl lead herself for a moment or two...

That's why I said "more tension"... Perhaps though there are other hijacks where less tension is required.

But then that's also why I said...

Originally Posted by ducasi

Perhaps a follower who actually knows something about hijacking (compared with me, how just likes to get hijacked occasionally) can tell us if I'm talking nonsense.

Thanks Tessalicious...

[pmjd]

Originally Posted by littlewiggle

Oh joy! PMJD You can dance with me any time then!

Well what I was taught and what I can do are slightly different things but if you're ever up this way I'll make sure to get a dance with you and try my best

[LMC]

Hmm, I'm not sure about reducing the tension to hijack either - from the workshop I did ( Lorna) and practising, it seems to me that a hijack is effectively a backlead of a stop.

For instance, in the slowed down return that ducasi describes, I would 'lead a stop' - effectively by increasing the tension momentarily so the guy couldn't make me travel any faster than I wanted to. If he 'gets' that I'm hijacking, he doesn't lead anything - and neither do I, I'm just doing something shiny and hoping that I don't look too stupid. The connection should be maintained - "I'm still walking round v-e-r-y slowly and wiggling, just stand there and admire me please". Returning the lead back to the lead feels almost to me like a little nudge - "I'm done now, carry on..."

[LMC]

Yeah yeah, bad girl, 2 posts in a row... but here comes my Friday rant:

On a different note from previous post - I <expletives deleted> hate it when a lead stops at some random point in the music (sometimes not even a break) and actually SAYS "Do your own thing"*

That would be "looking like a bunny in headlights". If you 'stop' and nothing happens, then we a) either don't "get it" or b) we don't feel like messing about. Please SAY NOTHING and LEAD SOMETHING.

*And it always seems to be the guys that you don't particularly feel like "expressing yourself" with Yes, it's personal. Get over it and dance - we can still have a nice dance AND hit breaks without you insisting on being a lazy git and making me entertain you.

EDIT: Damn that felt good...

[littlewiggle]

Originally Posted by LMC

*And it always seems to be the guys that you don't particularly feel like "expressing yourself" with

Well I must confess to sometimes being a bit naughty when the mood takes me! I recently picked a male wallflower at a freestyle and really turned it full on ......he didn't know what to do! He did say he'd enjoyed it greatly but it was obvious he didn't know what had hit him...it amused his friends too! I am so wicked!

[Yogi_Bear]

Originally Posted by littlewiggle

...........Well I must confess to sometimes being a bit naughty when the mood takes me! I recently picked a male wallflower at a freestyle and really turned it full on ......he didn't know what to do! He did say he'd enjoyed it greatly but it was obvious he didn't know what had hit him...it amused his friends too! I am so wicked!

You can dance with me any time then

[littlewiggle]

Originally Posted by Yogi_Bear

You can dance with me any time then

Are you a wallflower YB???

[David Franklin]

META:

When you [quote] someone, you need to put [/quote] at the end of what you're quoting, or the forum gets confused. (If you just quote someone without any editing, there will be a [/quote] at the end. The problem occurs when you edit the quote and mistakenly remove the [/quote] bit). The really unfortunate part is that if you leave out a closing [/quote] and someone quotes your post, then it will look like someone else said what you said.

It is always a good idea to preview your post to check it actually looks like you wanted it to before submitting it!

In an attempt to fix the quotes, this is who actually said what...

Originally Posted by littlewiggle

Well I must confess to sometimes being a bit naughty when the mood takes me! I recently picked a male wallflower at a freestyle and really turned it full on ......he didn't know what to do! He did say he'd enjoyed it greatly but it was obvious he didn't know what had hit him...it amused his friends too! I am so wicked!

Originally Posted by Yogi_Bear

You can dance with me any time then

[littlewiggle]

Oh yes...I see what you mean I am new!! Thanks for sorting that out!

[Yogi_Bear]

Originally Posted by littlewiggle

Oh yes...I see what you mean I am new!! Thanks for sorting that out!

and yes, I could be a wallflower if it would be in my best interests....in fact I usually am if the music is c**p

[littlewiggle]

Originally Posted by Yogi_Bear

and yes, I could be a wallflower if it would be in my best interests....in fact I usually am if the music is c**p

What's your idea of crap music then?

[sapphire]

Originally Posted by LMC

On a different note from previous post - I <expletives deleted> hate it when a lead stops at some random point in the music (sometimes not even a break) and actually SAYS "Do your own thing"*

That would be "looking like a bunny in headlights". If you 'stop' and nothing happens, then we a) either don't "get it" or b) we don't feel like messing about. Please SAY NOTHING and LEAD SOMETHING.

*And it always seems to be the guys that you don't particularly feel like "expressing yourself" with Yes, it's personal. Get over it and dance - we can still have a nice dance AND hit breaks without you insisting on being a lazy git and making me entertain you.

I do agree with you on this.

However, re other comments on this thread about face stroking, I would say that I do not mind my face being stroked.

I found Gadget's online workshop on Sensual Dancing extremely instructive. Thank you. Pity I only read it today when I hosted a blues party on Saturday.

[Yogi_Bear]

Originally Posted by littlewiggle

What's your idea of crap music then?

Loud thumpy bouncy techno certainly qualifies......as does 'Amarillo'.

[straycat]

Nice article. As another late-comer to the thread - we have an interesting set of viewpoints on blues in general. Where I come from is, in a sense, the very beginning - I did a few blues classes with N&N when they first started doing them (they told me at the time that Nigel had basically brought the idea back from the Herrang Blues nights, and adapted it a little to fit MJ) - it was taught basically as a philosophy, more than anything else. I've done no classes since, but have seen a few which were much more move-based. Have liked none of them.

I'm a purely social dancer. I never set out to have a sensual dance with anyone. It simply happens from time to time, as the music and the mood take me and my partner.

I don't like too much contact. Very often, the most sensual 'caresses' come close, but don't actually touch. Eve contact however is a must - I do look into my partner's eyes a lot. If they aren't comfortable with that, we wouldn't have been ramping up the sensuality anyway.

I have to have very good connection (and probably a good dance chemistry) going with my partner. Without that, it's not going to happen.

It isn't a show dance - I usually prefer to economise on movement - too much can simply detract from the feeling. Probably the most intense dance I've ever had started with minimal-contact close-hold simple moves, and slowly evolved into us just standing there, staring into each other's eyes, barely moving (for what felt like the rest of the evening)

And that, to me, is the blues.
Disclaimer:
Just my own perspective on the matter - blues is always a very personal thing, not saying any other viewpoints are wrong. Just what my own is.